A self-help solution

"You can't be very intelligent
or you wouldn't be homeless." -- Government social worker, February,
1997

At the time, I resented his words.
He was, in effect, saying that one is stupid because one doesn't have a
month's rent plus a security deposit and a cleaning fee. Make that two
months' rent if the credit report is bad. Moreover, his funding was based
upon therapy. No long-term help unless I had a problem that could be addressed
therapeutically. The only therapy I needed was sensible rent and an income
to pay it. I report this so that you'll understand I am not an outsider
looking into homelessness. My interim solution is open to most of you.
Before explaining what that is, we need to identify the difference between
a homeless ideal and what is possible now.

The ideal is a goal adopted by the
National
Coalition for the Homeless, and forms the basis of most responsible
social activism. These advocates see permanent housing for all and a system
of supportive services as the best long-term response. As sociologists
Marjorie Hope and James Young have so eloquently written in The Faces
of Homelessness,

We believe that the inalienable
rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are glorious but
empty abstractions unless they are animated by more elemental rights: to
housing, to sustenance, to health care, to social services, to work. Human
beings dumped into the streets like yesterday's refuse hardly possess life
or liberty, and do not know what the pursuit of happiness means. (270)

While I support and endorse this noble
agenda, the ideal is not likely to get a "less deserving" homeless person
into his or her own living space in the near future. In my view, self-help
and selective use of the existing social service system is more realistic.
Believe it or not, there are solutions to many problems of individual homelessness.
Part of the challenge is in finding them. Another part is learning to be
flexible enough to take advantage of help when it is offered, provided
the help serves your ultimate goal. Turning your life around requires a
decision and a commitment to an escape plan, more of which in a
moment.

Progress -- such as it is with homeless
issues -- has been dictated largely by empirical evidence. Most samples would
seem to suggest that homeless people (as a group) either have been incarcerated,
have substance-abuse problems, have been alienated from their families,
or have a history of mental disorders. In other words, they are disenfranchised
from the rest of society, and have little stake or interest in mainstream
society's goals. Therefore, many states have implemented a case-management
system in an attempt to salvage individuals from the larger pool. And this
is where most of the money is directed. The problem with this view of the
world is that it tends to imply these four categories are the cause of
homelessness -- that the homeless person is responsible for his or her circumstances.
Homelessness, apparently, has nothing to do with loss of cheap rentals
to urban renewal, substantial rent increases, a minimum wage that hardly
reflects the cost of living, and loss of traditional unskilled and semiskilled
jobs to cheap labor elsewhere.

Many homeless people have bought
into the argument that they are the sole cause of their homeless condition
and have become prisoners of the system. As a prisoner of war, any reasonable
chance of escape must first start with a plan. Indeed, the only weapon
you may have against your captors is the plan. Your plan is the light at
the end of the homeless tunnel. If the plan doesn't work the first time,
keep revising and refining until it does. I suggest these hours you spend
researching, designing, and executing your escape plan will become your
salvation.

Continuing education

This is an era in which adults return
to school. For our present purpose, it doesn't matter how these "new traditional
age" students justify doing so, whether excess leisure time, boredom, social
interaction, a lifelong love of learning, keeping pace with technology,
whatever. They appear to be hitting the books in record numbers.

I never doubted that homeless people
possess an uncommon measure of horse sense. It turns out they have more
than this. There is evidence, according to a study by sociologist James
Wright in 1989, that almost one out of five homeless people has attended
"one or more years of college" and that "over half have a high school [diploma]"
(Fantasia 75). In the case of homeless veterans, the statistics are even
more encouraging. Up to eighty percent has graduated from high school,
and fully one-third has college exposure (Alker 10).

One of the more obvious solutions
to your homeless dilemma is to finish that degree you started. If you've
had no exposure to higher education, this might be an excellent time to
begin thinking seriously about it. There are even programs to help you
finish high school through general educational development or GED. Consider
this: the federal government will support one's serious commitment to education
through grants and low-interest loans. Keepers of the public purse also
recognize that you will need living space and food while pursuing this
commitment. Many schools have work-study programs available to help supplement
other financial aid. Note, however, this scenario doesn't happen overnight.
Starting from scratch (so to speak), you may need six months to a year
of lead time to make it happen. Unless there are valid reasons to the contrary,
you'll be expected to contribute about $1,200 to the annual expense formula
from your own earnings.

Returning to school allows everyone
to win. Society wins because each credit hour successfully completed makes
you more employable. No longer are you the ward of uncountable social service
agencies. You have a commitment to the country's tax payers to make good
on their investment in you. Daily interaction with the staff and students
of a college or university will help to restore your self-esteem. With
the current emphasis on adult education, age is hardly a factor.

While I'm not sure he had homeless
people in mind, British philosopher Alfred North Whitehead (1861-1947)
defined a university as a place "where the young and old are gathered together
in the imaginative consideration of learning." In this atmosphere, your
exposure to the homeless subculture may become an asset to help make a
difference in the lives of others. It may take the shape of a public voice
for those who have none. It might play the role of a guide through bureaucratic
minefields, or of finding common ground to get one group talking to another.
It could involve troubled youth or the unique problems of senior citizens.
It even may address the root of your own problem such as substance abuse
or a relationship that went sour.

For information on student financial
aid, there is a "free, comprehensive, independent guide" available on the
Web. The University of Texas maintains a link index to university, four-year
college, and community college home pages. Also, don't hesitate to visit
the financial aid office of a school near you for additional counsel. This
should help to get you started in the right direction.

Help often comes from unexpected places,
particularly while shopping for a school, or establishing residency. Organized
religion generally considers the homeless subculture to be a fertile field.
Mandatory chapel exercises (called "ear-banging" among the initiated) never
hurt anyone, particularly if a long-term bed and food are a part of the
package.
You don't have to tell them you've applied to what Robert Persig (Zen
and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance) called "The Church of Reason."
I draw the distinction because original thinking is encouraged in this
other church; indeed, it is a large part of a university's reason for being.
The so-called "rescue" mission concept of one-size-fits-all may very well
not.

Lest any reader suspect this is a
thinly veiled rejection of things spiritual, it isn't. Most homeless people
have a spiritual component to their views on how things are. I'm merely
suggesting that a college campus may give the formerly homeless person
enough freedom to discover his or her own spiritual ideal, where
the "rescue" mission's agenda is more like a twelve-step program for fundamentalist
conversion. You alone can decide which size fits.

If school isn't your bag, and my
discussion above hasn't convinced you to check into the possibilities,
take a few minutes to review my Homeless
Program Index. While still under construction, this will point you
toward other index resources as well as detailed listings for a
handful of programs. As always, part of the challenge is in finding these
programs. The Internet can help you to do that.

Why
learn to use the Internet?

In a word, parity. Whether
one's circumstances are temporary or semi-permanent, the Internet can help
to level the playing field by giving one a voice and access to massive
amounts of information. Putting your experiences into words and sending
them to the right people may help to cause change. That's happened before;
hence that bit about the pen being mightier than the sword.

In 1993, Richard
Civille, of the Center for Civic Networking, presented a paper to a Harvard
symposium on public access to the Internet. The
Internet and the Poor argues "strength of weak ties theory" and suggests
that such networking "broadens one's knowledge of the world, expands horizons
of opportunities, and helps in career advancement."

When you think about
it, weak ties theory appears to operate at the very heart of communications.
The number of weak ties a person may have almost dictates that person's
environment and view of the world. People with few weak ties are
isolated. There is an insulating layer between them, the global village,
and the exchange of ideas. Civille says "they are confined to the
provincial news and views of their close friends." This sounds very
much like the condition of homelessness, a sort of closed system.
To escape is to find a way to break out of that system.

U. S. District Judge
Stewart Dalzell (Philadelphia) has said the Internet is "the most participatory
form of mass speech yet developed." With public access available
in a growing number of cities and towns, the only barrier to taking advantage
of the Internet is learning how to use it effectively. The Internet
has opened its playing field to anyone -- including the homeless.
No longer is it necessary to have an expensive storefront or to pass extensive
credit checks to participate. It is not necessary even to have a
home.

The Internet can
make your words available to anyone with access to it, anywhere in the
world. To me, the Internet is like a change in attitude. Cyberspace is
beyond the here and the now, and the dinginess of present circumstances.
It will engage your mind -- both in learning how to use it effectively,
and in maintaining your end of the dialogue before an audience. It will
put you in touch with other human beings who may have insight into a problem
you're trying to solve. Or more knowledge about a particular place than
you have.

The ability to quickly find useful
information on the Internet is a skill one learns with practice using popular
search engines. Here's a fully functional example of Google...

If you are traveling, for instance,
you can instantly check the weather for any area ahead of you. If you need
detailed directions to a particular street address anywhere in the country,
the Net will draw you a map. If you want a tourist's view of the city you're
planning to spend the winter in, chances are that city has a Web site on
the Net. Often the local newspaper is online as well, complete with all
the local news and classified ads.

Yahoo! provides easy
navigation to all of these. Simply enter one of the bold terms into Yahoo!'s
search field near the top of this page.

Public access

As a homeless person, your access to
the Internet may well be through the growing number of public-access computers
maintained in libraries. Those same libraries probably offer free classes
for an hour or two on Internet basics. I have also witnessed homeless people
sharing this knowledge with each other, much like one might expect of students
in a middle school. You should also be aware that virtually every community
college and public university in the country is now connected to the Internet.
Libraries in these institutions often have some community-access arrangement
where ordinary citizens are able to use certain computer tools. If
there is a fee involved, it is usually less than $25 per annum. Perhaps
to the chagrin of other patrons, some libraries have become virtual day
shelters to homeless people. For a well-documented survey of this issue,
including some creative solutions, see: Silver, Judi.
Libraries
and the Homeless: Caregivers or Enforcers. Katharine Sharp Review,
Winter, 1996. Nevertheless, if society's agenda for homeless people
involves a regular paycheck, then computer literacy is a marketable skill.

Finding a library

The link below may help you to find
a library that probably has free, public access to the Internet.
When you have isolated a convenient site, the library may require that
you possess a valid card to use its equipment. This is not unreasonable.
If you don't have a library card, find out what the requirements are and
get yourself one!

E-mail

Once you've found a library, have free
access to the Internet, and have learned how to log on (like President
Clinton promised for every twelve-year-old), you will want to register
for a free e-mail account. Three of the most popular e-mail hosts are suggested
below. Be prepared to supply your real name or at least the name you generally
use with social service agencies, and the answers to a few demographic
questions about your age and income level. The service may also request
a city, state, and zip code. These free services are supported with on-screen
advertising, like Tripod's banner at the top of this Web page.

It is possible that you may encounter
a librarian who insists e-mail is not supported. Actually, the library
need not maintain a mail server. As long as you have free access to the
Internet, you may take advantage of e-mail with the services below. It
may be a good idea not to mention this to an overly protective librarian.

Sooner or later (it's only a matter
of time) you'll want to create your own Web page -- your "home" on the World
Wide Web. It's not difficult. Many service providers offer
free
space for a personal home page. If you have difficulty finding one,
email me for a current suggestion.

More than a few homeless
people devote some of their time to writing. In addition to providing an
audience, the Internet can put the power of a large reference library at your
fingertips. One of the more useful "fact engines" I've seen is based in
the United Kingdom. Here you'll find the Penguin Rhyming Dictionary,
The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms, and The Oxford Dictionary
of Quotations, among dozens of other sources.

Find Facts:

the web's reference engine

In search of a forum

In cyberspace, a forum involves two
or more people who come together because of mutual interests. They have
something to say to one another because there is some common thread connecting
them. The vehicle they choose may be a newsgroup, where the postings may
be read by anyone; it may be a discussion list, where e-mail messages sent
to a common address are routed to every other subscriber on the list; it
may be a more intimate forum -- such as Delphi's "communities," which offer
structure, expert moderation, and real-time chat capability.

Streetring is currently working on
a periodic newsletter. We invite your participation both as a subscriber
(it's free, of course) and as a contributor. If you have something worthwhile
to say to other homeless people, and people who manage the social service
empire, here is a readily accessible forum. To subscribe, use the sidebar
form near the top of this page. The newsletter email address is: ringnotes@yahoo.com

Newsgroups

I wish I could tell you that homeless
people had a well-subscribed newsgroup that was closely followed in all
centers of power. Unfortunately, this is not yet the case. alt.society.homeless
is too new to be well known. If the quality of postings improves, it may
develop a following. Some of the other newsgroups will occasionally touch
on the subject (alt.gathering.rainbow is an example), but their respective
agendas are somewhat broader. DejaNews, a free, newsgroup posting
service and search engine, was acquired by Google in February, 2001.
Google has now placed all of Deja's newsgroup archives online and has
implemented posting capability. All you need is a verifiable email
address. This is an excellent way to participate, assuming
that most public-access systems do not maintain news servers. Here's a link that will take you to Google's newsgroups:

International Homeless Discussion
List

Hosted by Communications for a Sustainable
Future (CSF) at the University of Colorado, the International Homeless
Discussion List is probably the largest forum to date on this subject,
with "about 550 subscribers." To subscribe, send an e-mail message to:

Note the double quotes around your name and the angle brackets around your e-mail address. So,
for example, your subscribe line might look like this:

sub homeless "John Doe" <jdoe@yahoo.com>

Homeless People's
Network

For information on participating in
this "homeless" and "formerly homeless" forum, visit HPN's Web site hosted
by Arizona State University at http://aspin.asu.edu/hpn.

Substance abuse/recovery

Substance abuse -- primarily alcohol -- is
probably the most significant barrier between a homeless person and his
or her own living space. Vast quantities of money are poured into treatment
programs in most major cities. Whether or not they work appears to depend
more on the client than on the program. Perhaps when the client is ready,
the right program will appear. To test these waters, consider the following
Internet resources: The "community" at Delphi

Delphi Internet Services
has opened some 100 "communities" or discussion groups to free cyberspace.
They appear to have a warm, cordial, and supportive Substance
Abuse/Recovery Forum. The forum's moderator agrees that homeless people
should have access to the Internet, and invites your participation. You
may explore all you wish without registering, but like any responsible
service, Delphi will want to have your e-mail address and location before
you will be allowed to post messages. alt.recovery.aa

I had occasion to quote the following
material for a Usenet (newsgroup) posting. I reproduce it here because
I couldn't say it any better. It also illustrates the formal way to quote
Usenet articles:

In article <terrym-0907971947100001@ppp-67-83.dialup.winternet.com>,terrym@nospam.winternet.com (Terry M.) wrote:>> This newsgroup is primarily comprised of individuals who arein recovery> from alcoholism, as well as other substance abuse or addictivebehaviors.> It is meant to be a place where recovering people can share their> strength, hope, and experience or just chat about what's goingon in their> lives.>> If you are considering stopping drinking, please attend a localAA> meeting. While there is much to be learned here, in the longrun this> newsgroup is not an adequate substitute.>> Some reading materials, recovery links, and a worldwide listof AA phone> numbers are located at the Sobrietyand Recovery Resources Web page.>

Other homeless resource
links

In late October of 1997, I began to
design an index to "innovative" homeless programs. The idea was to reprise
program details and to provide hyperlinks to the program or facility Web
site as well as to publish a working e-mail address, if available. I saw
a useful tool, freely accessible to professionals, researchers, advocates,
students, and, of course, homeless people. Designing the page was the easy
part. Populating it with useful information became the difficulty.

The index structure is now in place
and online, freely accessible to anyone. Maintenance is relatively easy,
largely because of an online response form that allows program officials
and others to supply information at their convenience.
Since the data is already in machine-readable form, adding a program to
the index merely involves updating a couple of files. Unfortunately, I
have neither the budget or the time to aggressively pursue new listings.
I ask your help in building this index into a resource that all of us may
find useful. Your suggestions and comments are always welcome.

Resource links to other indexes and,
so far, a handful of detailed programs

Guest book and help
from the author

All visitors to this Web page are cordially
invited to "sign" our guest book. If you wish to leave a "public" message
that others may read, the guest book is the proper route. For private questions
or comments, you may use e-mail addressed to: ringnotes@yahoo.com,
using the word help in the subject field of the message header.
Please allow 24-48 hours for a response.

Notification of
changes

Tripod, our gracious host, will send
an automatic e-mail message to you if it detects changes in our Web page.
For those that wish to be notified in that event, please click on the link
just under their banner at the top of this page.

Credits

Kudos to The
University of Arizona who, as the nation's fourteenth-most-wired institution
of higher learning, has made the Internet readily available through community
access (Source: Yahoo! Internet Life, May, 1998).

References

Alker, Joan. "Heroes Today, Homeless
Tomorrow?: Homelessness Among Veterans in the United States." Washington,
DC: National Coalition for the Homeless, 1991.